Engaging the Bible in
Mission Theology Scholarship: Scholarship, David Bosch (1)
David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in
Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991).
After initial chapters on the mission theology of certain New
Testament authors, Bosch surveys the history of missions. He structures his historical survey by
identifying six paradigms for mission in Church history. He attempts to associate key Biblical texts with each of the paradigms for mission.
Bosch’s views on which Scriptures go with which paradigms of mission form the focus of the following study, with a very brief caution
and comment of my own at the end. In the next study, a deeper look at Bosch's paradigms for mission will be presented. An
outline format should help readers scan this study quickly.
1.
Apocalyptic Paradigm of primitive Christianity
a.
This is the period during which
the New Testament documents were being written and when the New Testament canon
was being defined.
b.
Salvation was largely future,
although begun in this life with radical renewal (see the summary of salvation
in the various periods, pp. 393ff).
2. Hellenistic Paradigm of
the Patristic Period (p. 209).
a.
Ground of mission is love (Jn. 3.16).
"For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have
eternal life.
b.
The Goal of mission is life
(Jn. 3.16). This is understood as
participating in God's glory. A key
Orthodox doctrine is theosis (cf. 2 Cor. 3.18): union w/ God (not
deification)--a continuing state of adoration, prayer, thanksgiving, worship,
and intercession, and a meditation and contemplation of the triune God and
God's infinite love.
2 Cor. 3.18: And all of us, with
unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror,
are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another;
for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
c.
Salvation is cosmic (cf. 2 Cor. 5.19; Col. 1.20):
2 Cor. 5.19: that is, in Christ God
was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against
them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
Col. 1.20: and through him God was
pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by
making peace through the blood of his cross.
d.
Salvation was seen as gradually
moving toward divine status and took the
form of paideia, instruction. Emphasis was placed on Christ's preexistence
and incarnation. (This is also true of
Catholics and Anglicans, but now especially of Liberation Theology.) But Bosch also notes the importance of Jesus'
resurrection in Orthodoxy (p. 515).
3. Medieval Roman Catholic
Paradigm
a.
Ground of mission is Lk. 14.23:
'Then the master said to the
slave, 'Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that
my house may be filled.'
b.
Goal of missions is to create a
Christian civilisation.
c.
Salvation was seen as the
redemption of individual souls after this life.
It occurred through Christ's substitutionary death on the cross (this is
also true of Protestantism).
4. Protestant
(Reformation) Paradigm
a.
Ground of mission for Lutherans is Rom. 1.16f (p. 240).
b.
Grounds of mission for Anabaptists are Mt. 28.18-20; Mk. 16.15-18 [which is, of course, a later addition
to Mark’s Gospel]; Ps. 24.1 (p.
246).
Matthew 28. 18 And Jesus came and
said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to
obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always,
to the end of the age."
Mark 16. 15 And he said to them,
"Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.
16 The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not
believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe:
by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18
they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it
will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will
recover."
Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's and all that
is in it, the world, and those who live in it….
c.
Calvinists: the goal of mission is the
glory of God, understood in terms of predestination and God's mercy. In theology and practice, this entailed
theocracy, 'to establish in the 'wilderness' a socio-political system in which
God himself would be the real ruler' (259).
The 'Praying Towns', fourteen settlements including converted Indians,
in Massachusetts were organised in accordance with Ex. 18 (259).
5. Modern Enlightenment
Paradigm
a.
2 Cor. 5.14: constrained by Jesus' love
was a major new motif,
along with earlier concern to bring glory
to God. Saving souls and bettering
society went together in 18th and 19th c.
2 Cor. 14 For the love of Christ urges us on,
because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.
b. In the 2nd
half of the 1800's, a number of premillenial mission
leaders and groups began to use
Mt. 24.14 as the major mission text
(316).
Mt. 24.14 And this good news of the kingdom will
be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then
the end will come.
c.
Paul's vision of the Macedonian
call (Acts. 16.9) was significant
when Western Christians viewed peoples of other races and religions as living
in darkness and deep despair and as imploring Westerners to come to their aid'
(340).
Acts 16.9 9 During the night Paul had a vision: there
stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to
Macedonia and help us."
d.
The proponents of the Social
Gospel favoured John 10.10:
'The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
'
e.
Matthew 28.18-20 was a key text for William
Carey, and since him it has been prominent in Protestant circles (340). Carey argued that the text applied to the
present day Church (not the disciples alone).
By the end of the 19th century, this text superseded all
others as the key mission text.
f.
Salvation was no longer seen as
distinct from God's providential care (under which came the notions of caring
for the needy), nor was it viewed as from outside human agency (pp. 394f). Jesus' work was not understood in terms of a
substitutionary death that propitiated God but as exemplary. 'Here not the person of Jesus was at the centre but the cause of Jesus; the ideal,
not the One who embodied the ideal; the teaching
(particularly the Sermon on the Mount), not the Teacher; the kingdom of God, but without the King
(395). At the Uppsala Assembly of the
WCC (1968), salvation was defined exclusively in this-worldly terms: 'for (1)
economic justice against exploitation; (2) for human dignity against
oppression; (3) for solidarity against alienation; and (4) for hope against
despair in personal life' (see Bosch, pp. 396f). Salvation was seen with respect to Jesus'
earthly life and ministry (p. 399).
6. Emerging Ecumenical
Paradigm
a.
The local church is one of
the new emphases in missions, with Acts
13.1-3 serving as a key text (p. 378):
'Now in the church at Antioch
there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius
of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. 2 While
they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set
apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them
off.'
b.
The
WCC's Narobi Assembly (1975) produced its report as a prayer for the churches
instead of a call to the world, and a key text was 1 Pt. 4.17 (p. 388):
For the time has come for judgment to begin with
the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who
do not obey the gospel of God?
In this regard, the church was distinguished from
(it 'witnessed to') the Kingdom of God (so the CWME of the WCC at Melbourne
(1980)). In the last half of the 20th
century, there has been a decisive shift to seeing mission as God's mission, largely to K. Barth's
credit and understood in terms of the Trinity (389). This was decisive at the Willingen Conference
of the IMC (1952). Mission is God's
work, through the Church, for the world.
This has been endorsed by the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics.
c.
Salvation
as taking place in the horizontal sphere alone comes under critique in this
paradigm (at the Nariobi Assembly of the WCC (1975) and the 1974 Bishops' Synod
and the Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975)
publication within Catholicism. Now,
salvation as holistic is the emphasis.
'Missionary literature, but also missionary practice, emphasize that we
should find a way beyond every
schizophrenic position and minister to people in their total need, that we should involve individual as well as society,
soul and body, present and future in our ministry of salvation'
(399). This view includes the vertical
(salvation from God; eschatological salvation) and the horizontal.
My Conclusion: Beyond
Bosch
I must admit that I find identifying paradigms with
particular Scripture passages both intriguing and reductionistic. (I do, in fact, think that the idea of ‘paradigms’
in history is fraught with methodological problems.) So, I conclude with a caution about Bosch’s
approach. For me, his arguments are best
used by us if, instead of identifying mission movements with singular or
particular Scripture passages, we rather ask the questions, ‘Are particular
Scriptural passages being used more than others in this or that mission
movement?’ and ‘What happens when certain Scriptural passages are used and
others not used, or de-emphasised, in our mission theology?’
One might also note that Bosch really needed to give
more attention to Pentecostalism when discussing the contemporary missionary
situation. This is, after all, where the
major growth is in the Church’s mission.
If we are to try to identify primary texts with Pentecostal missionary
efforts, they would certainly include Mt. 28.18-20; Acts 1.8; and Acts 2.17-21
(quoting Joel 2.28-32a]:
Matthew
28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and said to
them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20 and
teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am
with you always, to the end of the age."
Acts
1:8 ut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts
2:17-21 [quoting Joel 2.28-32a] 17 'In the last days it will be,
God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams. 18
Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my
Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19
And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of
the Lord's great and glorious day. 21
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
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